The term consumer electronic equipment, as used herein, includes television receivers, videodisc players, video tape players (VTPs), compact disc players (CDs), and radios. The term television receiver, as used herein, includes television receivers having a display device (commonly known as television sets) and television receivers without a display device such as VCRs.
Many modern television receivers include a so-called sleep timer function for automatically turning the receiver off after a predetermined time interval set by a user. The sleep timer function allows a user to conserve power by shutting off the television receiver automatically if the user has fallen asleep. Such a sleep function is known from, for example, RCA CTC-140 type television receivers manufactured by Thomson Consumer Electronics Incorporated, Indianapolis, Ind.
Unfortunately, even though a user has set a predetermined time for the television to automatically turn off the user may not fall asleep, but rather may become interested in the program and remain awake. In this case, the user may forget that the sleep timer is enabled, and then find to his surprise that the television automatically turns itself off.
A related common problem, which occurs especially in households with small children, is the problem of wasted power due to unattended operation of a television receiver (or other consumer electronics equipment). That is, it frequently happens that children will turn on a television receiver, become distracted, and leave the room to play elsewhere. In this situation, conventional sleep timer capability in the television receiver would not solve the problem. This is so, because conventional sleep timers must be enabled in some fashion to become active and begin timing the timeout period. Since children, it seems, cannot be expected to turn off the receiver, they certainly cannot be expected to perform the more complex task of enabling a sleep timer function.